Overview

Porting is the act of transferring a phone number from one telephone service provider to another telephone service provider. Number porting has the advantage of retaining the same phone number while switching service providers. This means that customers will not experience service disruptions and companies can retain their user base from existing phone numbers. Phone number porting must be requested by the owner of the phone number.

Porting an existing Phone Number to Plivo

Porting is the act of transferring a phone number from one telephone service provider to another telephone service provider. Number porting has the advantage of retaining the same phone number while switching service providers. This means that customers will not experience service disruptions and companies can retain their user base from existing phone numbers. Phone number porting must be requested by the owner of the phone number.
Below is an overview of the process for porting a phone number to Plivo:

Submitting a porting request with documentation

Verification of the porting request

Porting Request submission to the Gaining carrier

Porting Request submission to the losing carrier

Response from the losing carrier

FOC/Porting date

1. Submitting a porting request with Documentation
For a successful port request, submit the following documents:

Letter of Authorization (LOA): Signed LOA by the authorized user and/or owner of the number(s). You can find a sample LOA here.
Note: The information on your LOA must match the authorized user name and service address provided by your current carrier.

PIN Number: Based on the service availability or coverage for a number, we may request for a PIN number for porting the US regular numbers. If you already have the PIN number, please include it in the LOA.

**Invoice: **Invoice is a copy of the most recent Phone bill (ideally within 30 to 60 days from the date of the porting request) which contains the account name, authorized username, and billing details for the number that you would like to port.
Once you have these details, create a new support ticket. Make sure you attach all relevant documents to the support ticket.

2. Verification of the porting request
If all the details and documents are accurate, the gaining carrier will start verifying the porting request. The verification and approval time may vary depending on the type of numbers that you are porting.
We recommend using the sample LOA form to provide accurate details for your porting request.

3. Porting Request submission to the Gaining carrier
Plivo then submits the request to the gaining carrier. This will ideally take upto 24 hours.

4. Porting Request submission to the Losing carrier
Once the porting request is verified by the gaining carrier, the request is submitted to the losing carrier.
The porting request will be pending with the losing carrier. No further action will be required till the losing carrier releases the number. This can take anywhere from 7-15 business days.

5.Response from the losing carrier
After the losing carrier verifies and processes the request, you will get an update on the status of the porting request. The request can be either approved or rejected.

If approved

Plivo will receive a Firm Order Confirmation (FOC) or a porting date on when your number will be in service with the new carrier.

If rejected

Plivo will reach out to you to resubmit the porting request and reinitiate the 5 step porting process again with the correct details or explanation on the rejection causes.

The best way to prevent your port request from being rejected is to make sure you submit the exact information that your current carrier has on file. It’s always good to contact your current carrier in advance to verify this information.

You can also get the details from the CSR (Customer Service Record). A Customer Service Record (CSR) is a document that contains the service address of the phone number that you would like to port. The CSR is required as proof of phone number ownership for all phone number porting requests.

6. FOC/Porting date
Plivo will send you an email of your porting date and we will add the numbers 2 days prior to the date of the FOC. At this point, we would recommend you to have the application set up ready for your number to avoid any service interruption or downtime for the newly ported number.

Porting a Toll-Free number to Plivo

All toll-free phone number porting requests must be made by the subscriber of the toll-free phone number. Plivo (the new carrier) will submit a porting request to the current carrier with the appropriate ownership documents from you. Below is the porting process in detail:

Raise a toll-free porting request through the support portal.
Plivo checks your requested toll-free phone number for porting eligibility. Currently, all toll-free phone numbers part of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) can be ported to Plivo. This includes toll-free phone numbers within North America with area code prefixes of 800, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888.

If the toll-free phone numbers are portable, then Plivo will request the following documents from you.
Note: Make sure that all documents have the same name and address. Any discrepancies may cause delays and even application rejection from the losing carrier.

Signed Letter of Authorization (LOA). The LOA Template for toll-free phone numbers can be found here.

Recent Invoice from the previous Service Provider which proves the ownership of the number or the Customer Service Record for the Phone Number. For VoIP numbers including Google Voice, Skype, etc., you may not be able to obtain a CSR or invoice as proof of ownership, therefore please provide a screenshot of the account page with your name and the phone numbers you wish to port in question visible along with your LOA.

The Plivo Account email that you would like the phone numbers to be ported to.

If this is a Wireless Port, then please include the wireless account PIN/Passcode.

Provide your preferred Porting completion date.
Note: The porting completion date should be at least 10-15 business days from the date the documents are submitted to the carrier.

Once we receive all the documents from you, we will submit the porting request to your current carrier.

Upon approval, your current carrier will release the number to Plivo and maintain translation for some time (3 to 7 Business Days).
During this period your calls would still be handled by the previous carrier. This transition period would be used to set up the Toll-free number with Plivo routing. Once the number is set up correctly, it would be added to your Plivo account to attach an appropriate application.

Previous routing and translation would be dropped within 24 hours once the customer has assigned the correct Plivo Application on the Toll-free number and confirmed this change on the porting ticket.
Porting requests can be rejected for various reasons. Please visit FAQ ‘On what grounds can a Porting request be rejected’ for complete details.
Note: If a porting request is rejected for any reason, the request must be re-submitted and the another 10-15 business day delay will be applied.